INTRODUCTION
In this paper, we are analyzing patterns of friendship between cats and dogs living in the
same household. This work is part of a larger study of interspecies communication in
which we are looking at both communication between human and non-human animals
and communication between different species of non-human animals. Regarding
communication between humans and non-human animals, we have looked at both
“scientific” efforts such as the teaching of sign language to chimpanzees and apes and
“non-scientific” efforts such as telepathic communication between non-human animals
and self-described “animal communicators.” Regarding communication between different
species of non-human animals, we are currently looking at interaction patterns between
dogs and cats in multi-species households but hope to extend this aspect of the study to
other species such as horses and goats.
Approximately 15 percent of families in the United States have both dogs and cats (one
or more of each) suggesting that it is possible to successfully mix different species of
non-human animals in the same household. Given that these two different species
“speak” different languages, we are seeking to discover how they negotiate a relationship
with each other that allows them not only to coexist in the same space but, often, to form
close and enduring friendships. Our focus in not on the evolutionary value of such
relationships but on the dynamics of interaction that result in the creation and
maintenance of interspecies friendships.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
As you might expect, the literature of animal friendship is relatively scarce – probably
because it assumes a level of mindedness in the animals that traditional animal
researchers have been unwilling to grant. Also, not surprisingly, the first animal studies
that looked at patterns of friendship were carried out on primates (Goodall 1986; Kano
1992; Smuts 1999) The more recent animal research that does allow for friendship,
however, tends to look at friendship within species rather than across species. Smuts, for
Convention